I am never sure what options are out there, nor am I versed enough to really build anything at this time...but I would love to be able to. I guess I need to do some reading from the local library.

My thought for the mounting would not be a hard mount to the engine, but rather much like the engine brace pictured below. It would span the engine bay, from fender to fender and not actually attach to the engine with a hard mount. The generator head would be driven by a belt coming off of the engine (thinking that an extra pully could be added in one of the accessory positions somewhere).

Luckily, in the 10 years I have lived in this vicinity, we have only lost power for more than 6 hours once...and that was after Hurricane Isabel last fall. We were out for approximately 48 hours then...and almost lost a lot of food in the fridge and freezer.  But I am always afraid of the future.

As for alternate power souces, I have considered other power sources, such as a nice Honda Genset...that would be my first option. I don't have the space for solar, nor would the homeowner's association like to see my roof covered with solar panels. Maybe on the back of the house, but nothing like that facing the road. And while I have a 2 year old running around, a subdivision neighborhood is in our best interest.

I think the real reason for my inquiry is I have a wonderful engine that should be purring nicely under the hood of my Caddy soon (did you know that cats pur at roughly the same frequency as an idling diesel?). I thought, hey, it's a pretty efficient system.....can't I harness that power for something useful when I am not driving?

Thanks again for the imput.  You're an asset to more than just the forum...but the sanity of people worldwide.

Mikey